Credit to Vanessa Ng

Students practice sign language at Becky-David Elementary.

A new club has been created at Becky-David Elementary teaching students how to have basic conversations in ASL, allowing them to communicate with their deaf and hard of hearing peers.

“The ASL program is made to help with facilitating communication between the staff, the children, and also the support staff, which is the interpreters, the paras, and to help assist with their education,” club co-sponsor and ASL interpreter Jeff Neufarth said.

The club was started at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year and runs in eight-week cycles, with third, fourth, and fifth graders split up into three sessions throughout the year. Club co-sponsor LaWanda Brewer explained that the new principal at Becky-David, Ed Beckmann, was instrumental in getting the extracurricular authorized. 

“It was approved around October, so we had a fast turnaround to figure out how we could reach the most kids,” Brewer said.

Educating as many kids as possible proved to be a challenge because of the sheer amount of interest for the club. Students had to apply and get accepted all for a two-month learning experience unlike any other.

“We do have a waitlist of kids because we have so much interest and excitement for this,” Brewer said.

Becky-David is currently the only elementary school in FHSD to have an ASL club, but Brewer hopes for more schools to create clubs as she and Neufarth have done.

“The best time to learn is really from birth to eight,” Brewer said. “So we’re kind of at that edge with third, fourth and fifth. But the kids at a younger age can really learn a lot quicker than when we’re old and set in our ways.”

Since Becky-David graduates feed into Barnwell for middle school and then FHN for high school, Brewer hopes that the gap between elementary and high school ASL learning will soon be remedied in order to help students better retain the ASL they’ve gained.

“I’ve learned that as you start young, you can pick it up faster and be able to keep going with signing,” Neufarth said. “And I believe that when you go out into the community, and you meet a deaf person, that you can then have conversations with them.”

ASL is not a foreign language class offered at any FHSD high schools. Brewer hopes this changes for the better, as other districts have such classes and can better encourage their students to better communicate with their deaf/hard of hearing peers. At the very least, the club at Becky-David can provide small stepping stones for students to learn the basics of ASL.

“We already have one student who aspires to become an interpreter when she grows up,” Brewer said. “And then we also had a student that went to Sign and Dine and sat with a deaf adult and was able to chat for an hour.”

These Sign-and-Dines are hosted at Panera once a month and allow the kids to use their skills in real-world environments. Deaf and hard of hearing members of the community are welcome to come and converse with students, who then get to practice using their signs.

Ultimately, there are many hopes for next year and community support will help those dreams to become reality. Brewer reflects on her effect on her students and the community impacted by them.

“As a teacher of the deaf, I’m always looking for both the language impact as well as those cultural differences to break down those barriers,” Brewer said.

If you are interested in learning sign language, you can currently sign up for free online classes through the Oklahoma School for the Deaf.